2024年4月29日 星期一
2024年4月11日 星期四
數字與佛典 Numbers And Buddhist Scriptures
南禪朋友好！
在了解佛典中常出現的百、千、億數字，是印度人擅長數學
而喜歡、甚至是掛在嘴邊的慣用「虛數字」後，我個人所講的
佛法就不再涉及無量無邊的用辭。
許多歷史的事實告訴人們 ，
五百世的福報連皇室貴族都已進入紙醉金迷的糜爛。
而五百世的惡報也讓人們失去重生的勇氣，
浮誇的數字只滿足文學手筆。
而更甚者是「起心動念」的剎那便可扭轉一切，數字進入不能
再小的單位。
從因緣法的觀念下手，一個想法升起，到著手改進，再到現實
開展已經不曉得是幾個百、千、萬、億的匯集！
如不能從「虛數字」裡擺脫恐怕會讓修行者沒完沒了。
看似摸不著邊的數字慣用其實是讓福與報「定型」，佛法教授
的業力是變動性，這涉及清楚的意義。
而哪一種福與報可在「人體」綿延百、千、萬、億「世」?
回歸「人體」（見入法篇，或參考YouTube南襌精舍善根的超
越）做佛法探討吧！
半寄
文獻參考。香光莊嚴第66期
http://www.gaya.org.tw/magazine/v1/2005/66/66all.htm
Numbers And Buddhist Scriptures
Greetings, friends of NanZen!
Hundreds of, thousands of, tens of thousands of, and
billions of are
commonly used inBuddhist scriptures. After realizing
that Indians,
good at mathematics and fond of numbers,are
accustomed to talking
about 'hyperbole numbers', I stop using terms
referring toboundless
when discussing the Dharma.
It shows in history that five hundred lives'
blessings lead the royal
family and nobles todebaucheries and
decadency; while five
hundred lives' of karmic retribution discourage
people from going
forward and getting reborn!
This kind of hyperbole
suits literature only (,but not Buddhist
Practice).
Another example of exaggerated numbers is
the statement that the
instant of "the rise of a notion"
can turn everything around, in
which numbers are minimizedto the
smallest units.
In accordance
with Nidānas, every accomplishment takes
accumulation and fulfillment of
hundreds, thousands, tens of
thousands, and billions
of conditions, from the rise of a notion, to
improvement and then to development
in reality.
The path will be endless if practitioners can't get
themselves out of
thetrap of the ‘hyperbole numbers',
Blessings and virtues are
indeed 'settled and finalized' with customary
use of ambiguous numbers. However,
karma in Buddhism preaches
and confirms variability.
What kind of blessing can last and go beyond
hundreds, thousands,
tens of thousands, and billions of 'lives' in
the 'human body'?
Return to the ‘human body’ to investigate
Buddhist
doctrines! (please refer to Entering the Dharma or Transcending
of
Virtuous Root
(Chinese subtitle only) on YouTube by
searching
for “NanZen Vihara
” and “ virtuous root” (南禪精舍 善根)
Master Ban Ji
Translated by Grace Jui-hsin Tsai
(Reference for your information)
http://www.gaya.org.tw/magazine/v1/2005/66/66all.htm
2024年4月5日 星期五
入法2 Entering the Dharma2
入法2
南北傳的佛法有什麼好爭論呢？
走過敦煌絲路到土耳其的一路修行洞窟，道盡『苦集滅道』修
行路上的孤寂！
絕對不能想像少了空法入注的佛法，將會是如何的缺乏生命力！
而修佛法的行者，如沒被沙漠與孤陽旱過、烤過，（指苦、集、
滅、道的修持），怎會知生命面臨結束所產生的生存矛盾與掙扎。
Entering the Dharma 2
What’s all this contention between northern and southern Buddhism?
Walking the Silk Road between Dunhuang and Turkistan, staying in
the meditation caves along the way, penetrating the four noble truths,
you experience the loneliness of the path!
It is absolutely unimaginable how lacking in vitality Buddhism would be without the doctrine of emptiness.
In Buddhist practice, if you’ve never been scorched by the truth of
suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the path, then how could you
possibly know the conflict and struggle arising from confronting one’s
own mortality?
『走過絲路，必定得走過那沒有盡頭的絲路⋯⋯』
才會知時間（無常）是什麼！？
而空間（無我）將如何延伸！？
半寄
“To tread the Silk Road, you have to tread the Silk Road that never ends. . . .”
Then you’ll know what time (impermanence) really is!?
And how space (not-self) is extended!?
Master Ban Ji
Translated by Ken Kraynak
入法1 Entering the Dharma1
南禪朋友好！
入法1
首先敬輓與祝福在台灣因食物、地震受難大德！
Greetings, friends of NanZen!
First of all, I would like to express my condolences to the loved
ones of all those who died in the recent case of collective food
poisoning and earthquake in Taiwan.
入法1
我被問到一個問題，半寄師父認為佛法該怎麼修？
不假思索的我直接回答：入法。
記得個人早年時期，尋著線索找《南傳阿含經》，其中只要看到
跟「北傳」《阿含經》翻譯有所不同時，身心竟然會悸動！
那時年輕大腦可用，對佛經幾乎到了生吞活剝的地步，也感謝
時代的因緣，如果不是世界各地掀起佛法探討熱，很多不能解
開的佛法問題，可能會一直「玄」著！
釐清很多佛法疑問後，還記得第一個感謝竟是慶幸自己生在二
次戰後大量資料重新考證的年代，
藉助新的證據少走了很多冤枉路，還是感謝佛法大德們的貢獻！
Entering the Dharma 1
Somebody recently asked me how the Buddhadharma is to be
practiced.
I immediately answered, “By entering into the Dharma.”
I remember how surprised and excited I was many
years ago when I
discovered various inconsistencie between the āgama section
of
theChinese canon and
the modern Chinese translations of
corresponding sūtras in the Pali canon of Theravāda
(southern)
Buddhism.
Way back then, I read most of the Buddhist scriptures in
detail but was still
perplexed. Thanks to the rapidly growing interest
in
Buddhism throughout
the world at that time, I’ve been able to find satisfactory answers
to
most of the abstruse questions that had
been plaguing my
mind.
By consulting the large amount
of high quality scholarship,
philology,
and textual criticism which has been
carried out in recent times,
I have cleared up these confusions and
gnawing doubts, and this has
spared me the trouble of going down a
lot of dead ends. For this I
owe these Buddhist scholars a debt
of gratitude!
《阿含經》的「法次法向」提供一個重要觀念，尋著佛法的腳
步，一步步走，一步步入法，進而走入佛陀教導的世界，再進而走入無常、無我。
半寄
An important term in the āgama section
of the Chinese canon is
“practicing the Dharma in accordance with the
Dharma”
(dharmānudharma-pratipatti), one of the
four ways of becoming
intimate with the Dharma. This means gradually treading
the path
shown to us by the Buddha, step by step going deeper, in
time entering
into impermanence and not-self.
Master Ban Ji
Translated by Ken Kraynak
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